The Question
How can you do everything right and how can everything go so wrong? Welcome to your Brewing Ground! Let’s face it, sometimes this happens in life. This can be the case in any number of situations. Things can go wrong when you do everything right with smaller moments; or, this can happen with major life altering situations or events. Why is this? That is the real question. There could be a number of reasons why things don’t work or go as planned. Let’s explore these ideas a bit.
The Muffins
Let’s begin by looking at a smaller situation. Let’s say that you have decided to make some muffins. You search and find a recipe. Next, you gather all your ingredients. You make sure to follow the instructions in the recipe. Once you pull them from the oven you realize they look nothing like the picture. Well, that doesn’t matter if they taste good. So, on to the taste test. OHHH – They are awful! The question now arrises – What went wrong?
Being perplexed by this situation you go back over the recipe; maybe you missed something. Now, this is where you will see a natural division form. The first group will find that maybe there was an ingredient left out, or the muffins were baked at the wrong temperature, or they didn’t get mixed well, the list goes on. In this instance it may be operator error. Now, for the second group. After checking, all the ingredients are present and accounted for. You even followed the directions exactly. So, what went wrong? Well, sometimes there is just a bad recipe. It happens! Unfortunately, not all recipes are good recipes. Either way, despite our best efforts things went wrong but for different reasons.
The Life Changer
There can also be major life changing situations in which you can do everything right and everything can still go wrong. Job is a perfect example of this. In the Bible, the entire book of Job tells the tragic, yet glorious, story about the life of a man named Job. Job contains 42 chapters. Every chapter’s focus is on one particular life changing event in Job’s life when he did everything right but everything went wrong.
Job’s Story
Job was a Godly man. He had a wife and 10 children. Job was a very prosperous farmer owning thousands of livestock and having many servants. Job had it all, family, friends, wealth, possessions, and prestige; he was the most famous and wealthiest in all the land (Job 1:3). He also built his life on God. It all began in Chapter 1. Satan came to God and claimed that Job only loved and trusted God because he had everything; he said that Job would not feel the same if had nothing. Satan asked God if he could test Job. God’s response,
“12 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.” Job 1:12 KJV
Quick Side Note: Did you catch what this verse is really saying. GOD IS IN CONTROL!!!
Satan tested Job in a very serious way. In one fail swoop Job lost ALL his children, livestock, and servants. Wow! Talk about a bad day!! But, Job still loved and praised God. God allowed Satan to further test Job with extreme physical pain. He still remained faithful! Now, Job’s friends heard of all what happened and came to be with him. All this only takes us through Job 2.
Job 3 begins the discussions between Job and his friends about his situation. These conversations take us all the way through Job 37. You will find a natural division here also. During these conversations Job’s friends question him. His friends believe that all Job’s tragedy was caused by sin; they urged him to confess. However, Job continued to defended his innocence. While his friends questioned that he was missing something, he knew that he had done everything right. Job knew that there was another reason this was all happening to him.
The Visit
Job 38 through 42 tells about Job’s next visitor – God! God finally spoke through a mighty storm. During His conversation, God addressed Job.
“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” Job 38:1-2 KJV
God himself had a conversation with Job – Woah! This conversation actually consisted of questions for Job about the natural world. His point was to demonstrate that we do not even have a full understanding of our natural world. How could we possibly be able to understand why bad things still happen when we do everything right – we can’t. God’s point was that it is more important to trust than understand. We may never be able to fully understand. But, God does heal and restore.
“10 And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” Job 42:10 KJV
God gave Job twice as much as he had before. He also blessed him with more children.
Biblical Truth
Even when we do everything right, things can still go very wrong. That is, wrong in our view. God has a plan and purpose to use these situations for our good. This is the whole reason for our Brewing Ground. Will you question God or trust Him?
Let’s Brew in Trust!
Have you experienced a situation like this in your life? Comment Below!
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